Le voyage imaginaire de Mozart au Japon

TRIO GEORGES SAND
(Virginie Buscail, Anne-Lise Gastaldi, Diane Ligeti)
Violaine Despeyroux, alto
Mieko Miyazaki, Koto

LABEL ENPHASES - RELEASE DATE 4/10/2024
Outhere Distribution - ENP019

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Recorded at Studio Stephen Paulello in April 2024
Artistic direction, sound recording and editing: Franck Jaffrès
Editorial coordination: Christine Di Benedetto
Layout and graphic design: Jean-François Lemporte
Japanese translation: Yoko Wakamatsu
English translation: Catherine Tourrière
Booklet illustrations: Setsuko Klossowska de Rola / Balthus

We imagined that Mozart had traveled all the way to Japan. Yes, Japan, in those days a closed, secret country, an unknown archipelago. What would his impressions have been? What effect would kabuki, Noh theater and traditional Japanese music have had on the brilliant playwright?
What combination of music, words and images would Mozart have come up with?

The libretto recreates what Mozart's feelings might have been upon encountering this very different culture, in the form of fictitious letters Mozart wrote during an imaginary trip to Japan, which, for various reasons, was set in 1788.

The CD is a bridge in time between Japanese and Viennese cultures, between the 18th and 21st centuries. It combines the music of Mozart (his two quartets and transcriptions of the overtures to several of his operas) with two contemporary pieces specially commissioned for this disc, in partnership with Radio-France, by renowned Japanese composers Daï Fujikura and Misato Mochizuki. In this recording, the “classical” instruments of the Trio George Sand (violin, cello and piano) and violist Violaine Despeyroux dialogue with Mieko Myazaki's koto, a traditional Japanese instrument.

Richard Collasse, a novelist, author of the “dictionnaire amoureux du Japon” and a great Mozart fan, who lived in Japan for over 30 years as CEO of Chanel Asia and was awarded the highest distinction a foreigner can obtain in Japan, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star in 2008, has written a fictionalized account of what Mozart might have experienced on his way to Japan.

In Mozart style, he wrote a fictitious correspondence from the Viennese composer, located for various reasons in 1788, to several people in his entourage:

• his wife Constance, to explain the journey and how he arrived in Japan,
• his sister Nannerl on her first impression of Japan,
• his friend Puchberg on Japanese customs,
• Haydn on Japanese music and instruments,
• his Japanese translator friend to announce his return to Vienna: 3 years before writing The Magic Flute, Richard Collasse amusingly suggests that Papageno comes from his meeting, in Japan, with his translator-turned-friend, whom he called “Papa Geino”.

• 6 previously unpublished illustrations by the painter Balthus for the sets he imagined for Cosi fan Tutte in the mid-20th century.
• An interview with his widow, Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, ceramist and painter, conducted by journalist and musicologist Thierry Geffrotin, on the importance Mozart had in her and Balthus's lives. The internationally renowned artist also donated a drawing specially created for the libretto.
• Two texts written by conductor, composer and musicologist Jean-Michel Ferran about his transcriptions of Mozart's opera overtures and the Viennese composer's two quartets.

The entire libretto has been translated into Japanese, as the project is scheduled to give concerts in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and elsewhere between 2024 and 2025...